Yesterday the space shuttle Discovery blasted off on its final mission into space. Two more space shuttle launches remain. The American manned space missions that started 50 years ago with Alan Shepard's 50 mile flight will soon end.It was like yesterday when the most prized toy was a metal Gemini space capsule which spitted sparks out of its end and had a red blinking light. Every American child dreamed of being an Astronaut and we were regularly told at school we could do anything as Americans because the USA was the greatest country in the world.In science class we would watch the Disney movie Man In Space and listened in awe as rocket scientist Werner von Braun told us about the amazing future we would have traveling to distant worlds. On Thursday nights the delight of Star Trek made the universe seem smaller.Then on a hot summer night tens of millions witnessed the grainy image of Neil Armstrong jumping down to the moon on the screen of a black and white television. We...(Read Full Post)